Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people aged 16 to 24 in Gloucester constituency are not in employment, education or training.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
With over one million young people not in education, employment and training, this Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn, including through expanded network of Youth Hubs, earlier intensive support in Jobs Centres through a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, additional work experience and training opportunities, a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant and £2,000 apprenticeship hiring payment for employers, and a fully funded six month job for long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds.
We also recognise the crisis of participation that Alan Milburn has so clearly laid out in his interim report. We will use this interim report to continue to build our reforms and look forward to final recommendations in the Autumn.
No estimate is available of the number or proportion of people aged 16 - 24 years who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in constituencies. The survey used to estimate 16-24 NEETs has too small a sample to produce robust estimates at this level. Estimates of the 16-24 NEET rate in English regions are available at Get Britain Working: Labour Market Insights April 2026 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of young people starting Apprenticeships in Gloucester constituency in the last year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Apprenticeship starts in Gloucester so far for the 2025/26 academic year (August 2025 to January 2026), along with earlier full academic year data, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/cb43461e-e56d-4442-3041-08dec5ee8a21
These figures are published in the Apprenticeships statistics publication, which can accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to get young people into work in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government’s ambition is to transform young people’s prospects, by ensuring every one of them has the chance to earn or learn through a Youth Guarantee.
We have already taken the first steps towards delivering a Youth Guarantee, including launching Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, announcing funding to almost double Youth Hubs across Great Britain, and launching an Independent Report into Young People and Work, to identify potential areas for reform to better support young people with health conditions and disabilities.
At the budget we announced the expansion of the Youth Guarantee, backed by a £820 million investment over the next three years to reach almost 900,000 young people across Great Britain. This includes expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain and a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, offering a dedicated session and follow-up support to 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit. This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. In addition, it will provide guaranteed jobs to around 55,000 young people aged 18-21.
The Department works closely with local partners to ensure support for young people reflects local labour market needs. In Gloucestershire, this includes working with Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC) Employment & Skills Hub, where the Department supported delivery of the 100 Futures initiative, targeting 100 young people for six‑week work placements to help young people build confidence, boost employability skills and move close to work.
Gloucester Jobcentre Plus also works with GCC’s Step Forward programme to provide enhanced employability support for Care Leavers. This includes regular engagement with the Care Leavers Team, Work Coach drop-in sessions at the Hideaway (Shire Hall) and a pilot offering flexible learning opportunities to help Care Leavers gain Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) cards, with training funded by DWP and delivered by local Care Leaver Team staff.
Gloucester Jobcentre Plus is also supporting young people through the Movement into Work placements and launched a mini–Youth Zone, bringing partner organisations directly into the 18–24-year-old workspace. This includes weekly engagement from local voluntary and community organisations (including SPEAR, Commercial Foundation, Young Gloucestershire, Healthy Lifestyles, Step Forward, Inclusion Gloucestershire), helping to provide a more holistic and accessible support for young people.
In addition, the Department is supporting the local Integrated Care Board’s Widening Access Demonstrator programme, targeting 100 young adults (16–30) from deprived communities to enter work experience, volunteering, education or employment.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to tackle and identify economic abuse in the welfare system to support victims and survivors.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to safeguarding vulnerable individuals and preventing economic abuse within the welfare system. Front line staff receive mandatory domestic abuse training, including economic abuse. Specialist training is provided for teams such as Child Maintenance Service, Universal Credit, Counter Fraud and Debt, ensuring colleagues can identify, respond, and support claimants safely and appropriately.
As part of the '“Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, DWP has committed to strengthening domestic abuse training for staff. We have also pledged to remove the Direct Pay service type so that the Child Maintenance Service manages and transfers payments between parents, preventing it being used as a tool of abuse.
DWP supports vulnerable customers by considering individual circumstances in debt recovery and signposting to specialist services. Our Debt Management Vulnerability Framework and annual adviser training strengthen this approach. DWP collaborates with Surviving Economic Abuse to ensure safeguards are in place for new debt recovery powers under the Public Authorities Fraud, Error and Recovery Act, protecting victims of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will consider removing the charges for the Child Maintenance Service's collect pay service.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Cases on the Collect and Pay service are typically those where the paying parent has demonstrated an unwillingness to pay, or has not been compliant in a Direct Pay arrangement. For this service, a fee of 20% is added to what the paying parent needs to pay, while 4% is deducted from the amount paid out to receiving parents.
Following a public consultation on wider reforms to consolidate the Child Maintenance Service into a single service type where the CMS collects and transfers payments, the Government published its response setting out plans to reform the CMS. This includes plans to reduce fees to 2% for both receiving parents and paying parents, maintaining the 20% rate for non-compliant paying parents on top of their calculated maintenance amount.
We believe fees are an important part of the service, offsetting the cost of the service and investment needed to make the reforms, reducing the burden on the taxpayer. The proposed fee structure is also intended to incentivise compliance by the paying parent.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support (a) parents and (b) single parents to access employment in Gloucester.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the Get Britain Working White Paper, which was published in November 2024, we set out our aspirations, backed by a £55million investment for 2025/26, to transform Jobcentre Plus and create a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone, including parents and single parents in Gloucester to access support to find good, meaningful work, and to help people to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers.
The Get Britain Working White Paper also committed DWP to supporting and providing all areas in England with resource to produce a local Get Britain Working Plans. We are asking local areas to develop detailed plans that address the challenges related to labour force participation (employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity) and progression in work. Local Get Britain Working plans will enable all areas to take the lead in shaping a coherent offer of support for their local citizens, including the offer of support for parents, across work, health, and skills.
Parents have existing support from Work Coaches, who provide individual, tailored help to all customers across the country, this includes supporting the development of skills needed to look for and obtain sustained employment, advice to parents on childcare support or help to address their skills gaps to aid career progression.
We are also considering how we can improve our support to help parents into work as part of our Child Poverty Strategy which will be published later this year.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to help with the work of the Inter-Ministerial Group on Tackling Homelessness and Rough Sleeping.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
DWP continues to work closely with MHCLG as part of the Inter Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, supporting the development of a strategy to get back on track to ending homelessness. I represent the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to ensure accountability for our part in the strategy.
DWP provides over £30bn of housing support each year, as well as £100m of Discretionary Housing Payments for those entitled to housing support who may face a shortfall in meeting their rental costs. In addition, work coaches provide personalised employment support for those with additional vulnerabilities such as homelessness.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that people receiving Universal Credit have adequate support for accessing (a) employment opportunities and (b) training in Gloucester.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
The local Jobcentre team in Gloucestershire are committed to ensuring that all customers, including those claiming Universal Credit, have ample support in accessing employment opportunities and training. They take a multifaceted approach that draws on locally gathered information and data to deliver a bespoke service to meet the needs of customers and employers.
Through employer networking events and visits to local businesses the team communicate how they can support employers with their recruitment needs, including advice on streamlining hiring practices and application processes to take account of diverse capabilities and health challenges, as well as offering space in the Jobcentre for job interviews, support with redundancy and retention, and disability awareness.
Monthly recruitment events are held in Gloucester, in collaboration with trusted partners, showcasing a range of vacancies and pre-employment opportunities with local and national employers, with an event at GL1 Leisure Centre on 13 February. The team also hold monthly drop-in sessions on employment support in venues across the community, including Noah’s Ark in Tewkesbury and Bespoke Mentoring in Lydney. Furthermore, the 100 Futures program provides 6-week work placements for young individuals, offering valuable workplace insights and development across several employment sectors. We are working with NHS Integrated Care Boards to collaborate on the Volunteer to Career Scheme, with the first cohort starting this month.
In terms of training and provision, Gloucester Jobcentre actively collaborate with partners to offer support, including Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Movement to Work, meeting regularly with Employment and Training leads at Gloucester County Council, to share information and discuss priorities and plans. The National Careers Service deliver career advice and training support in every Jobcentre. The Restart program offers intensive employment support and in addition to Work Coach support, customers aged 50 and over can benefit from a 12-week employability support program, run in collaboration with Forest Green Rovers and the Employment and Skills Hub. We also deliver outreach services in locations across Gloucestershire, including Cinderford, Coleford and Stroud.
These initiatives ensure that customers in Gloucester receive the necessary support to access employment opportunities and training, fostering a pathway to sustainable employment, and you would be welcome to visit Gloucester Jobcentre to see this work at first hand.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the average increase in the State Pension in each of the next five years.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government has committed to uprating the basic and new State Pensions by the Triple Lock for the length of this parliament.
Based on OBR Autumn 2024 forecasts, over the course of this parliament, the full yearly rate of the new State Pension will go up by around £1,900. At the same time, the full yearly rate of basic State Pension is forecast to increase by around £1,500.
Table A.3 of the Economic Fiscal outlook sets out the OBR’s economic and fiscal forecasts in each year, including the Triple Lock uprating forecast which is the rate at which basic and new State Pension is increased by for the following financial year. For example, the 2024-25 rate will determine the rate of increase for basic and new State Pension for the year 2025-26.
Forecast year | 'Triple-lock' guarantee |
2024-25 | 4.0%* |
2025-26 | 4.3% |
2026-27 | 2.5% |
2027-28 | 2.5% |
2028-29 | 2.5% |
2029-30 | 2.5% |
* Note: After the forecast was finalised, inflation and earnings outturn data and revisions were released which have changed state pension triple lock rate for 2024-25 (to be used in uprating for 2025-26) to 4.1 per cent.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the extension of the Household Support Fund in 2025-26 on low-income households in Gloucester.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made on the potential impact of the extension of the Household Support Fund in 2025-26 on low-income households in Gloucester.
We are currently conducting an evaluation of the Household Support Scheme that ran from April 2023 to March 2024, to understand the benefits of the awards made across England during this period. This will be published in due course.
Management information on the Household Support Fund from April 2023 to March 2024, including details of how funding was spent in Gloucestershire, of which Gloucester is a part, is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/household-support-fund-4-management-information-for-1-april-2023-to-31-march-2024.